When Samba Meets African Dictators: The Ugly Side Of Rio De Janeiro's Carnival

A spectacle known for its colorful and sometimes even outrageous costumes, Brazil's world famous Carnival is under fire after the Beija-Flor samba school was declared the champion of this year's Rio de Janeiro parade competition on Wednesday. The reason for the controversy is the school's alleged association with Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa's longest-ruling dictator. Mbasogo has ruled Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich but population-poor country, since 1979. Human Rights Watch says Mbasogo is responsible for serious human rights violations and a denial of fundamental freedoms, including arbitrary arrests and restrictions on freedom of assembly.

According to Rio's O Globo newspaper, Mbasogo ordered some $3.5 million of Equatorial Guinea government funds to be sent to the organizers of this year's Beija-Flor presentation, which paid tribute to the African country. Officials from Beija-Flor declined to talk about specific sums, but confirmed to have received unspecified "cultural and artistic support." In a statement released Thursday morning a spokesperson for Equatorial Guinea's government said the sum was actually donated through an initiative led by Brazilian companies that operate in the African country. There were no details released on which companies took part in the initiative.

It wouldn't be the first time that Mbasogo misused public funds. Figures released by the International Monetary Fund in early 2013 showcase the government’s spending priorities: while half of Equatorial Guinea’s capital spending in 2011 was used to build infrastructure and another 22% was spent on public administration, health and education together accounted for only 3% of spending.

Rio's hotly anticipated annual parade competition among the city's Top 12 samba schools is Brazil's equivalent to the Academy Awards, with a live broadcast throughout the day and a huge following on social media, thanks to the presence of international celebrities, who in past years have included the likes of Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gisele Bundchen. Actress Claudia Raia, one of the most popular in Brazil, was featured in Beija Flor's parade.

A panel of judges gives each school a score in nine categories. There is no cash prize for first place, but rather a trophy and bragging rights. It is not the first time that Rio's Carnival has been dogged by allegations of financial irregularities. The last big police investigation in 2007 resulted in 24 arrests, uncovered a large network of pay-offs, and allegations that the outcome of the parade had been fixed. And for years Rio's police have been targeting gambling chiefs accused of running Brazil's illegal gambling game, "Jogo do Bicho," or "The Animal Games," an activity that involves big sums of money and is not controlled by the government, ultimately becoming a perfect way of laundering money.

Among those arrested in 2007 were Capitao Guimaraes, who at the time was the president of the Independent League of Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro, and gambling chief Anisio Abraao David, who has acted as honorary president of Beija-Flor. Rio's samba schools have been allegedly supported by gambling chiefs and even drug lords, a fact mostly ignored by the city's authorities.

For years there have been discussions about the legalization of Jogo do Bicho in Brazil, as some believe it would cut out violence and other criminal activities associated with it. Some argue that this could act as a kind of amnesty for the crimes already committed. In the meantime, Brazilians play other lotteries such as the Mega Sena, which is legal and also taxed, and run by Brazil's state-controlled bank Caixa Economica Federal. Last December, Mega Sena paid a record $93 million to four winners.

As for Mbasogo, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes at $600 million in 2006, the Equatorial Guinea he wanted the world to see in Rio's Sambadrome was far from his country's reality. After overthrowing his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, in a bloody coup d’état 36 years ago, Mbasogo has done little, if anything, to improve the lives of his country's inhabitants.

In spite of being one of Africa's largest oil producers, Equatorial Guinea has one of the worst human development indexes in the world, according to the United Nations. Most of its citizens don't have access to clean drinking water, and the country has one of the world's highest under-5 mortality rates, with about 20% of its children dying before turning 5 years old.

That has not stopped Mbasogo and his family from enjoying a wealthy lifestyle. In 2011, the dictator's then 41-year-old son Teodorin Nguema Obiang was accused of using suspect funds to buy $20 million of art from the estate of Yves Saint Laurent. Two years before that, Nguema shipped 26 cars, including seven Ferraris, and six motorbikes worth a combined $12 million through France from the U.S. for re-export to Equatorial Guinea, according to customs documents seen by France's Le Monde newspaper.

According to Global Witness, Nguema, who was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee in 2004 for allegedly diverting money from his country's oil funds, also bought a $35 million mansion in California in 2006, and in the same year he was reported to have said to a South African court that it was standard practice for government ministers in Equatorial Guinea to take a cut of government contracts. Nguema was in Rio this week to watch Beija-Flor's parade.

Mbasogo and his family's link to this year's Rio Carnival parade tarnishes an already-challenged image of celebration that is in desperate need of reform, like many things in Brazil nowadays.

I'm a journalist covering everything from media issues to the world of that very particular group of people who are just as rich as they are media shy. I also write about my native country of Brazil and its growing importance as a global player, from a Brazilian-who-spends-...